Isaac, you were right to quit when you did, it didn’t get any better. Though I wish you stuck around to witness the transformation of Officer Hilton into HILT because I really can’t understand why any intelligent people at DC would let that happen.

Hard to believe how bad Green Arrow stuff is lately

I liked Krul’s first issue of Green Arrow too, no small feat considering it dealt with the same boring ‘beat the Black Lantern zombie’ story that every DC comic has tried to tell in the past three months. I agree this latest issue wasn’t as good as that, but even though there were three different artists it was still better to look at than 90% of current Green Arrow issues.

Though I admit to being confused to how Prometheus’s corpse ends up without a helmet, considering there was an arrow through his head. Is that an artist/editor miscommunication or am I to believe that someone found Prometheus’ body, pulled the arrow out, removed his helmet, then put the arrow back in its hole? Where’s Isaac? I smell a potential no-prize here.

I think I might be annoyed with this coming Green Arrow plot. I forsee a lot of ‘how could yous’ and ‘you’re a murderers’ coming along, and those all seem very silly things to say considering that Green Arrow has done something like this before and killing Prometheus is a perfectly natural and reasonable response, if not morally repugnant.

Alex: editors suck and don’t pay attention to things like that. I’m sure Batman was immune to fear toxin, for the duration of whatever storyline he mentioned that in.

Batman is one classy dude “I had sex with WHO? Damn. Bitch must have drugged me.”

b) if I had a mask as awesome as Batman’s I’d want to wear it all the time too…

I know you didn’t mean this, but in my head I had the image of Batman losing control of his libido because Talia put on “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love Babe.”

You’re right, Morrison probably read Hush…after all, he read all those god awful old Batman comics where he was fighting creatures made of paper and rainbows just so he could try to bring that all into continuity (WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT??). Still, you’d think he’d take the time to read ONE comic that you’re basing a very pivotal plot point on. To be frank, I’d be happier if he skipped Hush entirely and read that instead; it seems to be more relevant to the story he wanted to tell.

Do you remember No-Prizes, Isaac? Stan Lee used to give out what he called ‘no-prizes’ to readers who wrote in their own explanations of mistakes that writers or artists made. It seems to me that you are trying to claim a no-prize from Morrison. You’re making excuses for his laziness, or bias, or mistake or whatever you want to call it. And you don’t need to do that. You’re better than that man! There’s no shame in pointing to an obvious gaffe by a writer and saying, “You fucked up.” Especially when the writer in question has publicly stated, “I fucked up.”

For god’s sake, he even told his artist to draw the flashback scene with Batman still wearing his cowl while he’s about to do it with Talia (who already knows his secret identity anyway). Should I take that to mean then that Batman has some weird mask-in-bed sex fetish? No I should not, because looking at Son of The Demon he is clearly maskless: therefore Morrison made (another) mistake and I can disregard that horrifying image of Batman completely naked except for his mask and utility belt, running around sticking his boner into Arab chicks.

glad you caught the Azzarello/Loeb mixup before I got back

I’m pretty confident that Morrisson has read Hush- that was a year of Batman comics. He is familiar with the material, that’s part of why the RIP Batman stuff was so complicated, because it was referencing a ton of Batman stories through the ages- for him to say that he hasn’t read ONE Batman comic that for much of its existence was considered either elseworlds or just straight up non canon (however you want to say it) is far more understandable.

Yes, claiming drugging is a lame excuse from Batman, but it actually works for me, it sounds right to me that he’s go there. Also, I have the Batman story in question, “Son of the Demon” and the idea of him being drugged isn’t, in my opinion, out of the question. But I’m not talking like straight up opium or something, but just something subtle to influence his actions, which is readily believable. In that sense you could call candle light dinner and Barry White a “drug”. You know, if that’s your thing.

Precedent, schmeshident — I have strong doubts that Morrison even read that Hush story arc CONSIDERING HE DIDN’T EVEN READ ONE OF THE PAST STORIES HE WAS DIRECTLY REFERRING TO. Also, at least Batman WAS subjected to fear gas in Azzarello’s story, so there’s some element of credibility there. By contrast, his claim he was drugged by Talia was either an outright bat-lie or, more likely, BAD WRITING.

[Regardless, do you really believe Batman fabricates an "I must have been drugged" excuse every time he makes a bad decision? That's not really in his character. That's the same thing as Peter Parker compromising his almost insanely rigid moral fiber by faking a photograph for the sake of Jameson's mayoral campaign.]

Let’s call that Catwoman thing what it is: Brian Azzarello using a flimsy excuse during his 12-issue run to return Batman to his relationship-less status quo. Better than resorting to magical spells that selectively delete parts of the past I suppose.

I have not read Death and the Maidens, and I have no problem with Talia’s character evolving in a logical manner into a different sort of person. On the contrary, I like it when characters evolve; it’s necessary to prevent them from becoming boring. But a writer needs to put work into it, otherwise it comes off as confusing and looks stupid. I don’t like seeing her suddenly act like a Bond villain, completely reversing her high opinion of her Beloved’s honor and valor, plotting Dick Grayson’s death and spouting lines like “Did they really think I’d let them take my son” to no one in particular for no apparent reason — wait, hold on, something just occurred to me — fucking hell, she’s sipping champagne and sitting on a GODDAMN THRONE when she says it. Super.

I’d say that’s sufficient precedent for Morrison to say that that’s the kind of excuses Batman comes up with when he does something he likes that has nothing to do with warring on crime.

Also, check out Batman: Death and the Maidens, Talia went through some stuff there, and as such it’s very difficult to judge how she shold be portrayed. But the general rule of thumb is she is much colder to Batman